A bolt from the blue as Sonic arrives back on the scene...
Sonic's world's been bust apart by the evil Dr. Eggman, so he has to dash about the place to hoover up the power of the chaos emeralds to save the day!
Yup, that's right folks. The UK's favourite videogame character, that rascally lil' speedy blue hedgehog is back, in the latest multi-format offering, Sonic: Unleashed. But will the new game bring cheer to the legions of fans out there (and in the T3 office)? Or will it cause (yet more) heartache amongst the SEGA faithful? We talked to fans and the game's Japanese producer and renowned director of Sonic Team, Akinori Nishiyama, to find out.
Firstly, how has Nishiyama-san seen Sonic change over the ages? "Well, the original Sonic from the MegaDrive era had a smaller head and tail and a more cartoon-like character than he does now, yet still had a cool edge."
As Sonic became increasingly popular with children through the 1990s, the Sonic Team boss notes that he "became a milder character… losing, for example, his furrow on his brow." That was until the classic "Sonic Adventure" for Dreamcast, where the developer recalls that the team went back to Sonic's origin and "made him more cheeky, fearless and cool." And thus, the 21st-century Sonic was born...
